In preparation for playing the game of football, place kickers spend many hours in practicing for accuracy as to distance and ball placement, as for example practicing to either kick the ball into/through the end zone or to force a kick returner to field the ball before the ball enters the end zone. In practice it has been the practice to utilize a second person to hold the football for place kicking to simulate game conditions. Many devices have been invented to replace the second person by which the place kicker can practice without the place holder person.
These devices include, for example, the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,445 to Treadwell et al. This device includes two ground engaging legs mounted in a pivotal manner to extend outwardly from a center module which center module also mounts a third leg which is pivotal on the center module and extends horizontally to hold the tip of the football in kicking position. The three legs are mounted to be pivotal so as to be collapsible for ease of transport and storage. This device lacks any telescoping features of the legs.
Another football holding device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,342,987 to Shaw et al. This device has two ground engaging legs and a horizontally extending third leg all connected to a center module. The legs are formed of multiple tubes with each leg being disclosed as “hollow tubes that nest with its adjacent section by way of a telescopic, nesting interface arrangement.” An inverted v-shaped module has guide holes for receiving the proximate ends of the three legs. A bungee cord extending through the hollow tubes and the module is used to secure the three legs in place relative to the holes of the connecting module. The place kicker pulls the ends of the three legs away and out of the mounting holes against the retaining spring force of the bungee cord to thereby de-nest and fold the device in a compact disassembled form. No telescopic adjustment of the lengths of the legs along the axis of the lengths of the three legs is taught. This lack of a telescopic adjustment feature limits the device to the type and size of the football used for a particular level of competition as the patent does state “the device could also be downsized, in the event it were to be used for juvenile-sized football.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,855 to Balestrieri discloses a vertical telescopic support wherein the vertical hollow tubing 27 and 29 are slide relative to each other and the length locked and controlled by a knob turned to press against a flexible collar trapped between the inner wall of tube 27 and the outer wall of smaller tube 29 as best viewed in FIG. 3. Three legs 13a, 13b and 13c are used to support the vertical hollow tubing and can be pivoted to align with the vertical axis of the vertical hollow tubing but are not telescopic. Further, an arm 49 used to support the tip of the football is not telescopic. This device is compactable as both arm 49 and the three support legs are pivotal relative to the vertical hollow tubing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,974 to Brown discloses vertically telescoping hollow square tubes with a locking detent extending through a vertical slot in an outer tube wall as part of a height adjustable place kick holder.